WOW – 1 July

Starting at about 4:00 p.m. thru 9:30 p.m. on June 30, 2014, the weather in Walcott dealt a blow to our corn crops.

We experienced long periods of 40-to-60 mile/hour winds, from 3-to-6 inches of rain, and a lot of lightning. As a result of this weather event, a few trees were lost, lots of tree branches ended up on the ground, and a significant amount of corn fields were flattened.

Weather effects on crops

My immediate concern is with the corn which was ready to begin tasseling. I had not seen any tassels yet, but expect to see some in the next five days. With the corn lodged—flattened—the pollen grains can have a difficult time falling on the corn silks at pollination time. When this happens, some of the ovules will not be pollinated.

Therefore, the quicker the corn straightens up, the less yield loss we could experience.